Wildlife Photo Academy

Workshop group photographing a porcupine

I vividly remember the very first photography workshop I attended, and it wasn’t a good experience.

It was with a now defunct “school of photography” and featured a self purported “expert” wildlife photographer. The workshop was held at the Triple “D” Game Farm in Kailispell Montana. To maximize my time, I decided to sign up for two back-to-back workshops with a horse roundup photo shoot in between.

The workshop began with an orientation meeting at the Triple “D” offices. Although I was very excited about the opportunity to get up close to large predators like cougars and bears, the more I listened to the workshop leaders talk, the more worried I was about my decision to participate in a workshop. I was already very confident making images of wildlife, but I figured attending a workshop would help me make my photography that much better and it was worth paying the extra money for the guidance of a professional photographer leading the workshop versus going on my own. It was clear from the orientation meeting that the workshop leader and his assistant were both going to be photographing along with the 12 or 13 participants.

For advice, the “pro” would say things like: “If you see the pro standing somewhere shooting images you should think to yourself, ‘Why is the pro down there and I’m down here?’” I was immediately wondering how the “pro” was going to help me make good images if he and his assistant were concentrating on their own image making. We were encouraged to feel free to ask questions along the way. The size of the group also concerned me as it seemed that the group was sized to accommodate as many people as were willing to pay.

Sure enough, when we got out to the shooting locations it was exactly as described. The “pro” and his assistant always seemed to continually be in the best spots and he would call out and ask people why they were somewhere different than he was. Maybe it is the Canadian in me, but I don’t feel comfortable interrupting someone who is busy doing something else. The whole setup immediately made me feel like I was just funding this “pro” and his assistant’s photography. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

The workshop progressed and came to a conclusion. And in spite of everything, I got a few pictures that I was happy with. The “pro” was also leading the horse roundup and the situation described above continued in the same manner.

The next day was the start of the next workshop. For the second workshop, the “pro’s” assistant was being replaced by David Middleton. When we showed up for the orientation meeting, the “pro” had disappeared and had left the entire workshop to David Middleton. It also came to my attention that the “pro” had absconded with the tip money collected to say thank you to the Triple D staff and animal trainers and it took a couple of emails and telephone calls before the tip money was mailed to Triple “D”.

The workshop with David Middleton was night and day difference from the first workshop. David is a true professional teacher and I learned a lot from him. And, he didn’t photograph during his workshop. In fact, he told us that it was his opinion that it was never worthwhile to attend a workshop where the leader was going to be photographing. He made a differentiation between a photography workshop and a tour. Where a workshop is an educational opportunity (and the leader shouldn’t be photographing) a tour was an opportunity for a group of experienced photographers to get together and photograph.

Even during my first workshop as an attendee at Triple “D” I knew that I eventually wanted to be doing my own workshops at Triple “D”. After experiencing a workshop with David Middleton, I knew that I had found a mentor and someone who I could model myself and my workshops after.

To that end, our leaders do not photograph during my workshops. We are exclusively there to provide instruction and help the participants go home with the best possible images. We also keep our workshops to a reasonable number of participants, usually between 8-10 people.

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Tags: bad, david, experience, good, middleton, proper, structure, workshop